Tool bassist Justin Chancellor has earned his place among rock’s most respected musicians. He was even honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bass Magazine Awards earlier this year. Still, when it comes to technical awe and near-mythic reputation within Tool, Chancellor admits that spotlight often lands on his rhythm-section partner, drummer Danny Carey.
And according to Chancellor, that praise is more than deserved.
In a newly published interview with Guitar World, Chancellor spoke glowingly about Carey‘s legacy – and also offered high praise for vocalist Maynard James Keenan and the band’s collective chemistry.
“There’s a vulnerability to our music that attracts people,” Chancellor said. “Maynard is up there with the greatest vocalists, I think Danny will go down as one of the best rock drummers of all time, and Adam and I have our own styles. We’re not the greatest, but we try really hard, and there’s an honesty that comes through.”
Despite decades of acclaim and Tool‘s multi-platinum success, Chancellor said working alongside musicians of Carey‘s and Keenan‘s caliber keeps him humble and motivated: “I still feel like I’m trying hard to be in a good band. If you start to believe the hype about yourself, then you start to lose the bigger picture. Your focus is in the wrong place.”
For Chancellor, the reward comes onstage and not from dwelling on accolades: “You get to enjoy that gratitude when you play your live show, so you don’t need to spend the rest of your time thinking about it.”
The conversation also touched on Tool‘s notoriously slow and meticulous songwriting process. With album gaps often stretching five years or more – and a 13-year wait between 2006’s 10,000 Days and 2019’s Fear Inoculum – the band’s perfectionism has become legendary. While Chancellor has previously expressed a desire for greater efficiency, he acknowledged earlier this year that Tool operates outside conventional timelines.
Chancellor also offered insight into how his bass parts and riffs emerge within Tool‘s writing process: “A lot of times a riff will come to me when I’m walking my dogs or driving around., When I count it out, it’s usually in an odd meter – but you can make anything straight time when you put four beats behind it.”
That rhythmic flexibility, Chancellor explained, is a core part of Tool‘s sound: “We’ll overlap time signatures or take an odd meter and straighten it out within a riff.”
And having Carey behind the kit makes even the most unconventional ideas feel natural: “I have the advantage of Danny being our drummer. I can bring him something in seven and he’ll be right on it. Even if it sounds uncomfortable, he finds a way to groove through it and make it come alive.”
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